Adieu Grandma

It was the 4th of March 2016, my beloved grandma was called home by the Lord. I had planned to visit her in the month of May this year but I was two months too late. Initially it was difficult to digest the news, but gradually I could accept it as the Lord's timing. It reminisced me of my last meeting with her, yes that memory of the last meeting.

With a brother from the church in Lamka a couple of years ago, I visited her in her cottage in a hamlet. The scene that afternoon I could never forget. The moment I met her, she narrated of the family incident which was complex and cloudy. I knew about it too, but my spirit restrained me from partaking of the family dispute as I already consecrated my life to the Lord and did not count it worthy to meddle in such affair. It was a painstaking moment to lend an ear to what she had to say as I reckon my already dead to family politics. For her sake, I exercised my patience.

Later, she covered her head with a scarf and knelt beside me requesting me to pray for her. It was an awkward moment to me as I deemed myself as her grandson and not a "spiritual leader." Nevertheless, I exercised my spirit to pray.

As I prayed she wept with deep repentance and shed remorseful tears, perhaps, for the controversial dispute on family property, from which the Lord had mercifully sanctified me. I could only pray that the Lord would forgive us for all our wrongdoings and from all our sins, and applied the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. After the prayer she stood up and shook my hands to thank me. To me all these did not matter at all, only for her sake I followed suit. She even asked if she would be forgiven of her sins, to which I affirmed that in Christ Jesus, by grace through faith, yes. Then we left with deep inexplicable feeling inside. I could only wish if she saw the same vision of God's economy too. 

Thank God, I purchased a Manipuri shawl from the famous Ema Bazar from the offering the Lord provided me through the Body, as though I knew that would be my last meeting. The Lord knew best, and He does. Her last words to me were repentance, prayer and thanking, and my last words were prayer and the word of God with comfort and a gift of shawl.

Alas, when hearing the news of her sad demise, I could only pray and fellowshipped with my younger brother to do the needful family duty. Bye bye grandma...

My childhood days were spent under her strict parenting. Yes, more like an army style of discipline; getting up early in the morning, grinding rice, fetching water with bamboo bar balancing two buckets, family prayer, simple meal and off to school on foot; after back from school was doing homeworks, then houseworks of all kinds, evening family prayer, dinner, study time and off to bed. This strict home discipline for about a decade of my childhood shaped my whole life, even lasting till today. I could not stop thanking the Lord for such a solid foundation on my human life. Since I left them for my higher studies I could not miss much more, especially the discipline. Now she has left this world, to ever meet her physically ever again is an impossibility. Nonetheless, I have the eternal hope of glory, which she had too, where and when we will meet one day again.

As for now, adieu grandma... 

"Pi e Mangpha.."